TULIKA PUBLISHERS IN ASSOCIATION WITH GOA UNIVERSITY
INVITES YOU TO AN EVENING WITH SUNITI NAMJOSHI, POET, FABULIST AND CHILDREN'S
WRITER
AT LITERATI ON SAT 17TH AUG 2013 AT 5.30 p.m.
JEET THAYIL, NOVELIST AND POET WILL INTRODUCE SUNITI
WHO WILL READ FROM HER BOOK "BLUE & OTHER STORIES"
FOLLOWED BY A DISCUSSION ON WRITING FOR ADULTS AND CHILDREN
Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, February 20, 2000
Feminism, one of her voices
"Don't be silly, darling. Only little boys grow up to be Emperors. As for
little girls, they
marry emperors; and they learn to hold their tongue, particularly on the
subject of the Emperor's clothes."
"The Lesson"
"She was indeed blessed with great ability. But everyone in the village was
critical of her."
"To be so damned good," they said, "is not womanly."
"The Gods"
There was once a man who thought he could do anything, even be a woman. So he
acquired a baby, changed its diapers and fed the damn thing three
times a night. He did all the housework, was deferential to men, and got worn
out. But he had a brother, Jack Cleverfellow, who hired a wife, and got it all
done.
"The Tale of Two Brothers",
Feminist Fables
Suniti Namjoshi is best known as the author of Feminist Fables. First published
in 1981, the book, which has been lauded as "a minor feminist classic", is a
superb retelling of myths and legends. The Arabian Nights, English nursery
rhymes, tales from Indian epics, fairy tales and
the Greek myths are all grist to the gifted writer to comment on the female
condition.
Having done her schooling at Rishi Valley, which taught her to examine
everything she saw with fresh eyes, Suniti went on to become a lecturer at the
University of Poona. She passed
the IAS in 1964. Soon after she took study leave to do her Masters in Public
Administration from the University of Missouri, Columbia, U.S.. She resigned
from service and obtained her Ph.D on poet Ezra Pound from McGill University,
Canada. In 1978 she went to England where the feminist and gay
liberation movement influenced her greatly. From 1987, Namjoshi devoted herself
to writing full time. A brilliant body of work, marked by sparkling wit, word
play and inventive power, emerged: Seven volumes of verse among them "Cyclone
In Pakistan", "The Jackass And The Lady",
"The Authentic Lie", and "From The Bedside Book Of Nightmares"; "Verses and
Fables: St. Suniti And The Dragon", "Feminist Fables", "The Blue Donkey Fables"
and "Because Of India". Fiction: Aditi And The One-Eyed Monkey (for children),
The
Conversation of Cow and The Mothers Of Maya Diip. Suniti has collaborated with
Gillian Hanscombe on a collection of poetry "Flesh And Paper" and on a play
"Kaliyug - Circles Of Paradise". Suniti lives and works in Devon, U.K..
Building
Babel, her most recent book is about building cultures. Here, she once again
plays brilliantly with characters from stories and myths. It is up on the
Internet to enable maximum writer-reader interaction. Suniti is above all a
poet. For her, poetry is the framework of reference. She believes
"... the techniques and considerations that apply to poetry, if properly
understood, can then be given a much wider application". The writer regards
change and renewal as essential to her creativity.
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